Anyone had legal issues with affiliate marketing campaigns?

[ironbull]

It's well known that in affiliate marketing, you can run white, grey and black hat campaigns. Black hat campaigns are usually the ones that make most of the money, but with a risk involved. Most of my campaigns are black hat, and as you start to make some good money, it's always good to get your ass covered.

I would like to know if anyone in this forum had legal issues with affiliate marketing campaigns, in the form of:

1. Legal complaint (user)
2. Legal complaint (brand)

In the first scenario, the typical situation involves a user making a legal complaint because he felt scammed somehow. The user saw a deceptive ad or landing page, he believes what the advertising is telling him, he lands in the offer, he signs up to the offer, but the offer he signed up did not offer what the user was expecting, but rather, something else. The user is charged a certain amount of $$ based on offer terms & conditions.

Example 1: WhatsApp Spy landing page, user places phone number to spy someone else WhatsApp, user gets convinced that the tool will work, landing asks user to sign up to the offer in order to get the details of the spied WhatsApp, user signs up to a generic offer that has nothing to do with WhatsApp.

In the second scenario, the typical situation involves a brand/company making a legal complaint because an affiliate is using their brand as a way to get users trust, in a misleading way.

Example 2: Sweepstakes landing page using Apple / Samsung / Amazon / Google logo to get users trust. Campaign gets viral, a lot of traffic comes and some users start to report to these big brands the use of their copyright material (logos & names) for deceptive advertising.

Does this really happen in affiliate marketing? Are there workarounds to avoid being sued if using these kind of methods? Any proper legal disclaimers?

 

[Graybeard]

Legal threats maybe, cease and desist demand letters.
Fair Use of Logos
About Trademark Infringement
I would not use a trademarked image for the purpose of implied endorsement.

 

[ironbull]

Legal threats maybe, cease and desist demand letters.
Fair Use of Logos
About Trademark Infringement
I would not use a trademarked image for the purpose of implied endorsement.

What if you state in your legal docs that all the trademarks and brands used on your landing are owned by it's owners?

 

[Graybeard]

I thought of that too . However, it is an implied endorsement -- consult an attorney to expand on your possible exposure ...
Maybe, you can get away with "Sorry, I didn't know -- I'll remove the offending trademarked images." and it will end there -- then maybe it will not.

A trademark holder needs to be shown to have *actively* defended his Trademarks in any court case claiming infringement. So, you may just be an easy court case to win and go on record ...